


Moving Beyond

by Yashiko61



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: M/M, Missing Scene, Post-Star Trek Beyond, Star Trek Beyond Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-25
Updated: 2016-09-25
Packaged: 2018-08-17 06:15:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8133373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yashiko61/pseuds/Yashiko61
Summary: A few extra scenes with Leonard and Jim set around the end of Star Trek Beyond.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Posted originally to my Tumblr account.

“Dr. McCoy? Please come this way, sir.”

Leonard looked up, realizing this took far more effort than it should have. A wave of lethargy had washed over him in the last while, and he, along with Jim and Spock before the two of them has been escorted to the ward ahead of him, had slumped into a collective tired silence as they sat in a side section of the admitting area of the Yorktown’s main hospital. Although the Yorktown was a Starfleet operated facility, the sizeable civilian population meant that many of the key facilities like the hospital were staffed by a mix of ‘fleet and civilian personnel. The nurse standing in front of him was wearing generic scrubs, the fine writing on the ID badge too small for Leonard to bother squinting at in front from his vantage point on the hard plastic chair.

“Uh, sure.”

Leonard levered himself up, and plodded behind her as she led him past rows of the Enterprise’s crew who largely monopolized the admitting ward. Most, at first glance, just looked tired. Any serious injuries likely were already behind the doors leading into the rest of the hospital. The Enterprise’s crew had all been ordered to report to one of the medical facilities for assessment. Those who cleared would be sent to temporary quarters that were being prepared for them.

The nurse led him into the ER, up to an empty bed. She motioned him to have a seat, and the short hop to get onto the bed took more effort than he cared to admit. The monitor lit up, and Leonard tried to pretend that he didn’t notice how terrible his stats looked before he refocused on the nurse. She picked up a tricorder from an adjacent supply cart, and did a fairly quick scan before focusing on the cut to his forehead.

“A bit of a headache, sir?” She was standing close enough now that he could read “Starfleet Medical” in small print on her ID card. 

“A bit, yeah,” Leonard sighed. “Look, I really could just use a shower, Nurse… Rodriguez, maybe a cup of coffee, then I want to check up on my crew.”

Rodriguez gave him a hard look. He apparently wasn’t about to win this one today. 

“Sir, you look like you could crumple on the floor any moment and sleep for the next month in that spot. I don’t think you realized that you got a bit of a mild concussion, but as soon as we get you cleaned up, one of the doctors will see you.” He thought about trying to retort, but couldn’t come up with anything that would help his cause and settled on a look of forced indifference. She pulled out some wipes from the cart and a small dermal regenerator before cleaning up the cut, which then decided to ooze slightly now that the encrusted blood was gone, before sealing it with the regenerator. 

As she dabbled a bit of after-care cream on the spot (thankfully relieving the slight itch from the newly healed skin) she tapped a couple commands into the wall panel next to the biobed monitor. She had nearly finished tidying up her supplies when someone Leonard assumed was a doctor pushed back the curtain slightly. He looked at the PADD he carried quickly and then up the monitor behind Leonard’s back. 

“Hello, Dr. McCoy, I’m Dr. Dublanc,” he introduced himself, speaking with a mild accent. French, probably. “If you can lay back, I want to get a bit more detailed of a scan.” 

Leonard sighed, but swung his legs up on to the bed and laid back before hearing the mild hum from the sensor block above the bed. He hadn’t noticed that up there until now, although he shouldn’t have been surprised. 

“Well, as the nurse probably already told you, you have a bit of a concussion. Normally just would warrant some bed rest, but we don’t have the staff to do house calls to the guest quarters for a while, so I’m going to admit you.” Leonard’s head popped up from the pillow and he looked up at the doctor with a questioning expression. The doctor was looking intently at the info on the monitor above Leonard’s head, oblivious to the sudden scrutiny, and continued. “Gives us a chance to run a drip, get you some food. You’re dehydrated and electrolytes are off. I’d like to see the potassium levels better before we let you go.”

“I’m sure this is a bit…” Leonard struggled to find the right words.

“Overzealous? Perhaps. But, easier to do this now before you hide in a dark room with a headache for the next few days,” Dublanc offered a hand and helped Leonard back up to a sitting position. He was typing some notes into the PADD as Leonard fiddled with the hospital bracelet. The problem with ‘fleet facilities was that you couldn’t just say no to treatment, something Jim complained about fairly frequently over the years, although that didn’t stop Jim from trying. But all eyes were on them right now, and Leonard, as much as he hated to admit it, even to himself, was too tired to push the system.

“Most of your crew so far has appeared to be fine, nothing that sleep and a solid meal cannot fix, at least physically. We are starting to clear them as fast as we can. We don’t need to rush anyone who legitimately requires any treatment, Doctor. Now, I need to get back to clearing people, so Rodriguez here will take you up. Take care.” Dublanc turned and gave a reassuring smile as he moved out of sight.

“This way, sir,” Rodriguez pointed Leonard towards an lift after they cleared the exam cubicle. The hospital was larger than appeared at first glance, but it wasn’t long before he was led to the back bed of a double room. A gown and some clean underwear were already laid out in a neat pile at the foot of the bed. 

“The ‘fresher is over here with some toiletries, I assume based on what you said earlier that you want to clean up. By the time you’re out, the ward nurse will be ready to start the drip and you can get some rest while it runs.” 

“Thanks.” 

Leonard had already been feeling overly awkward about the whole situation, but a shower would do wonders anyways. He carried the bundle into the small bathroom, and sighed. 

Sonic shower, just great.

He decided it wasn’t worth the fuss to go beg for access to a “real” shower, and peeled out of his uniform, leaving it in an awkward pile in the corner. He relieved himself, then brushed his teeth and ran the electric razor over the stubble on his chin before stepping into the stall. He could only coax a 5 minute cycle with mild warmth out of the patient-safeguarded controls, but came out certainly feeling better and his hair clean. He pulled on the clean underwear and socks, and couldn’t quite get the ties on the back of the gown tied. He scooped up his laundry, and poked his head out of the bathroom, eventually dumping the load onto the chair near the bed.

A younger nurse stepped into the room seconds later, and offered a hand with the damned gown before gesturing to the bed. He sat on the edge before pulling his legs up and trying to coax the head of the bed up straighter as she put his boots on the floor before grabbing his dirty clothes.

“We’ll get these in for cleaning. I’ll be back with your IV and a meal.”

Leonard had nearly started to doze off when she came back a minute later with a cart. She set down a meal tray in front of him, and as he poked at some generic breakfast-ish food with his fork, she slid the IV band over his left forearm. He winced a little as it slid a catheter into a vein, but she had the electrolyte drip running within a minute, and left him with instructions to eat what he could before getting some sleep.

Not even twenty minutes later, when she looked in next, the lights were dimmed to 10%, and Leonard was snoring lightly on his back, half the food growing cold on the tray that had been pushed away from the bed.

“Sleep tight,” she whispered into the room, before pulling the curtain between the beds over.

—

Leonard woke up some hours later with a full bladder and no sense of how long he had been asleep. He slipped off the biobed, grateful for the warm socks to insulate his feet from the cold hospital floor, and unplugged the IV pole, pushing it towards the small bathroom. The nursing station would be notified of course, but he assumed they wouldn’t bother him as long as he returned to bed soon. The light of the bathroom was sharp and bright to his darkness adjusted eyes, and he couldn’t help but squint as he did his business. While the the lights in the hospital room wouldn’t shut off entirely, they were no worse than the dim light in the far corner of his quarters - well, his old quarters - on the ship that never did shut off as long as someone was in the room for safety reasons. The IV was set to a slow drip, but the bag was getting close enough to empty that Leonard debated on freeing himself from his line. As he stepped out of the bathroom, he noticed that the curtains were pulled around the other bed that had been vacant earlier. He must have been sleeping pretty deep to miss them moving in his neighbour. The nurse poked her head in the doorway into the room before following Leonard to his bedside and turning on the lamp on the nightstand.

She scanned Leonard with a tricorder as he climbed back onto the biobed, before putting her finger to her lips in a “shh” gesture and pressing a button on the IV band. The catheter slid out of his vein before the integrated regen closed the tiny cut with a tingle. 

“Do you need something to help you get back to sleep?” she asked, voice barely a whisper. 

Leonard shook his head, the lingering warmth of the covers already comforting again as he settled back onto the mattress. She nodded, and turned off the light before pushing the IV pole out and tugging the curtain around the bed closed. Leonard was asleep again within minutes.

—

The next time Leonard woke, the light from the rising sun had begun to spill into the room. He shifted a bit, considering letting himself settle back into another doze before the sounds of the increased activity in the ward outside the room became more apparent. A look at the chronometer in the corner revealed that it was nearly half past seven, and Leonard must have slept a good ten hours since he was admitted. The hospital residents were likely to come in on morning rounds soon, but Leonard was too content to lay back and relax under his warm blankets, half asleep.

Sure enough, shortly before eight, the curtain was pulled back and a resident stepped in.

“Good morning,” the resident said pleasantly in a voice that wasn’t the whisper of the night nurse but still not jarringly loud. “Dr. McCoy, isn’t it?”

Leonard nodded, a bit self conscious now he was fully awake.

“How are you feeling?”

“Much better now I’ve had some sleep,” Leonard admitted, voice a little rusty.

“Ah yes, I’m sure. Any lingering headache?”

“No.”

“Looks like the mild concussion symptoms you still presented yesterday are good, but if you start to get headaches again once we release you shortly, be sure to report to the clinic. I’ll let the nurse know that someone from Starfleet can come with info on where you should report once you’ve cleared out from here.”

“I have a number of other crew that should have also been kept overnight, is it possible to…”

“Go see them before you go? There is only a handful who won’t be released right away this morning, but I can give you a contact frequency that you can call later that can provide details on those remaining. Was there anyone specifically?”

“Commander Spock, and Captain Kirk…”

“Spock is the Vulcan, correct? I would have to check, but last I heard he was still recovering after some surgery. I don’t know the details unfortunately. As for Captain Kirk…” The resident pulled the curtain aside, revealing Jim’s sleeping form in the next bed. “They gave him a sleep aid after finishing treatment last night. He may be out for a couple more hours. But,” the tricorder hummed over Jim’s torso, “he looks like he’s doing fine now aside from the common complaints of exhaustion.”

“But, for you, if you want to wait for him to wake up, we are not in a rush. A nurse will be by with breakfast soon and the logistics officer will come once you’ve had the chance to eat.”

“Thanks.”

True to the resident’s words, a nurse was by soon with a tray of breakfast, including a wonderful mug of coffee. He finished most of the meal before the logistics officer caught up to him, giving him a PADD with details on the temporary quarters and a couple new uniforms to last him until his appointment with the Yorktown’s quartermaster. The reality of probably having lost all of his personal belongings on the ship started to sink home, and he pulled up info on what shopping was available so he could at least have a couple sets of civilian clothing to wear while off duty. The logistics officer left Jim’s bundle and info with Leonard before moving on.

Leonard had cleaned up and changed by the time Jim stirred awake. The scrapes and cuts on his face were mostly gone, but the one bruise lingered under Jim’s eye. The artificial sunlight of the Yorktown made Jim’s blue eyes look electrifyingly bright, but Jim just smiled and went “Hey Bones” as though they were on shore leave instead in a hospital ward. Leonard stepped back into the comfortable role of chief Jim-handler so familiar from their academy days, and an hour and a half later, they signed their release forms and were on the way to their new quarters.

The admiralty had not yet decided what to do with the surviving 400-odd crew of the Enterprise, but they each went to a uniform fitting session that afternoon followed by a hour or two in the shopping district, picking up some basics and a comfortable jacket each, before returning to their quarters (a few doors apart). Uhura sent word that Spock had too been released that afternoon, but Leonard claimed that he really just needed an evening to himself. Jim looked hurt at first, but admitted that he was still tired, and retired to his own quarters not long after with his new purchases.

Leonard made a few calls from the privacy of the room, and called in room service because he could, before settling in for an early night.

—

“God, Bones, I must have slept 12 hours last night.”

The two of them were glancing over brunch options at a cafe not far from the guest senior officers’ quarters.

“I pretty much did the same, it was like everything over the last few days finally caught up on me. And this bed is at least more comfortable than the biobed.”

“Have you heard from Sulu yet? I heard he pretty much went straight to the family quarters as soon as he was released that night.”

“I only skimmed his medical, but he was okay apart from needing a good sleep like the rest of us. I’m sure he wanted to make sure his husband and daughter were fine.”

“How long have they been here?”

“Only about a year, from what I heard. Not long after the Yorktown opened up applications for civilian residents. Makes sense given that we expected the Enterprise to remain on this side of Federation territory for most of the rest of the mission.”

“Yeah, I suppose.” Jim finally selected an item from the menu after having skimmed it absentmindedly.

“Jim, I know this isn’t the best day to-” Jim’s eyes snapped up from the table, cutting Leonard off.

“To what, Bones? Go find a corner of the station where no one will recognize me tonight?”

“Jim.”

“Yes, I know that is my usual tactic, but all things considered… I just might need some time to myself again tonight. I won’t do anything stupid, I promise, but… this all came too close to home.”

“Jim, look at me, it was close to home for us all. That tin can was home for us, for everyone. Our careers, our place of rest, as much home as anywhere else. Who would have thought that I would have said that even five years ago, but I already miss it. Hell, even though they said they are starting reconstruction almost immediately doesn’t mean it will be just as the old Enterprise was. Doesn’t mean though-” Jim suddenly looked sideways. “-That you need to hide on your birthday of all things.”

“You know how I feel about my birthday.”

“Yes, and that’s why I’m taking you out for supper tonight. Just something simple, but heard of a great place near the internal space dock. Far enough from the space views for me, distractions for you.” Their brunch order arrived and both men tucked into their meals, although Jim didn’t look convinced of Leonard’s plans.

Leonard gave that soft smile that melted Jim’s heart on many an occasion - the prickly facade that Leonard cultivated was pushed aside with just the two of them over their meal.

“What time should we meet?”

“1730, I’ll meet you at your quarters.”

—

The chronometer showed that the evening had nearly turned into a new day. Leonard and Jim had returned back to Jim’s new quarters, and they settled on the couch. 

Leonard was pleasantly buzzed but not drunk from the drinks at the party, and knew that Jim, for once, had levelled off his own consumption part way through the evening. Neither one spoke for some time, each relaxing in the silence of the room, comfortable in each other’s presence. Leonard hesitated to break the ambiance by speaking up, until Jim cleared his throat slightly.

“Bones?”

“Yes, Jim?”

“Thank you. For tonight, for the past week, for the past years. I have always been able to count on you to know just what I needed, even when I can’t see it myself. And I’m glad you’re willing to follow me when we get to head out again.”  
Leonard smiled. “I wouldn’t have it any other way, although you may still give me an ulcer yet. But besides, you would have been bored silly within months had you taken on that vice-admiral post.”

“No I wouldn’t.”

“That was hardly convincing.”

“Okay, maybe a year.”

“Ah, that’s more like it,” Leonard laughed. Jim looked pensive and fiddled with the cuff on his new jacket. The chronometer blinked midnight in the corner of the room, and with that, Jim’s birthday was over. Leonard stood awkwardly, and took a step towards the door.

“I should let you get some sleep. We’re both yawning away.”

“You could always stay here.” Jim’s words were more of a statement than a question or even an outright offer. The two of them had been known to stay over with another on the odd occasion, but both would chalk it up to their couple years as roommates back at the academy. They had settled into this strange, codependent relationship over the years that wavered between emotional and platonic, and Leonard didn’t want to ruin that, and tonight was not the night for them to have that conversation.

“I could, but not tonight.”

Jim looked at Leonard, conflicted, before finding his voice.

“Okay then. Brunch tomorrow?”

“After 10?”

“Sounds good.”

As Leonard pulled on his boots at the door, Jim stood up. “Thank you again for tonight.”

“Sure kid,” Leonard smiled as he stepped through the door into the hall.

“And…” Jim started to speak until Leonard looked back at him. 

“I hope you know how much,” Jim stalled, looking at his feet more than anything else, “you mean to me.” 

Leonard certainly recognized the unspoken intent behind Jim’s carefully chosen words, and he couldn’t help but reach his arms out to Jim, who had followed him a step out the door. Breathing in the warmth of each other, Leonard could only reply, “Me too,” before they pulled apart after a minute.

“Stay.” The words were now more a plea. Leonard paused, feeling conflicted, before letting Jim tug him gently by his hand and lead him back into the room in silence, both of them breaking personal barriers to their relationship that had lasted them through many incidents until now. Neither needed words again that night, as they settled in Jim’s bed and simply relaxed into sleep in each other’s presence, they finally were able to just be, resting body and soul. And in the morning, when Leonard stirred awake to the sight of Jim sleeping peacefully beside him, healthy and whole, he knew that they would somehow make this work, but in the meanwhile, he could savour the moments like these that came so rarely in life.

He, they, were safe, and more importantly, at home, which was wherever they were together. And as Leonard whispered “I hope you know I love you” into Jim’s ear as he slept, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s notes: While I have dabbled in writing some fiction for myself over the years, this came out of a writing spree I indulged myself in after seeing the most recent Star Trek film, after many years of being a Star Trek (and Star Trek fandom) follower. This is the first piece in a long long time that I have felt comfortable sharing.
> 
> This was edited a few times after it went up on Tumblr originally, but if any beta-editors familiar with Canadian English spelling standards are interested in looking at this or any other (future works) it would be appreciated.


End file.
